The German Defense Minister accused Putin this Sunday, March 3, of trying to “destabilize Germany.” The comment is made after the recent broadcast in Russian media of an audio with a confidential conversation between German officers about possible shipments of sensitive weapons to Ukraine and in which a hypothetical attack on the Crimea bridge, which connects the territory, was debated. annexed by Moscow with Russia.
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Berlin targets Moscow after a “very serious” leak of conversations within the German Army. The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin this Sunday of trying to “destabilize Germany”, following the dissemination from Russia of confidential exchanges between German officials about arms deliveries to Ukraine.
“It is simply a matter of using this recording to destabilize Germany,” Pistorius said on Sunday, March 3, at a press conference in Berlin. And he added: “It is clearly about undermining our unity (…), about sowing political division internally and I sincerely hope that Putin does not succeed and that we remain united.”
While the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, promised on Saturday a “thorough” investigation after the broadcast of a 38-minute conversation with extremely sensitive content for Berlin. The German Defense Ministry confirmed that a secret Air Force conversation had been illegally tapped.
And, although she did not validate it 100%, a Ministry spokesperson made a fairly clear link to the leaked conversation, adding: “We are not in a position to say with certainty whether any changes have been made to the recorded or transcribed version circulating on social networks”.
The option of attacking the Crimean bridge, one of the sensitive points of the leak
The controversy arose on Friday, after a recording of a conversation between senior German officers via videoconference was published from Russia on social networks. The editor-in-chief of the Russian state channel 'RT', Margarita Simonyan, broadcast the file, which lasted more than half an hour, presenting it as a conversation from February 19.
The AFP agency had access to the material, in which the participants discuss the possibility of kyiv receiving long-range Taurus missiles of German manufacture. In addition, they talk about what would be necessary for Ukrainian forces to use them and their possible impact.
The officers refer in particular to the option of attacks against the Crimean bridge, which links the Kerch peninsula and the territory annexed by Russia in 2014. One of them points out that between 10 and 20 missiles would be needed to destroy it.
These talks, apparently preparatory to a briefing for the German Government, put Berlin in an uncomfortable position. Until now, Germany has officially and publicly rejected any delivery of Taurus missiles, despite kyiv's insistent demand, for fear of a war escalation. These missiles have a range of more than 500 km and could even reach Moscow.
A conversation that reveals military secrets of allied countries
In the recording, the participants also discuss the details of the deliveries and use of the long-range Scalp missiles, supplied since 2023 by France and the United Kingdom to Ukraine.
This part of the wiretapping is one of the most delicate for Berlin because it reveals secrets of the allied countries. Recently, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sparked criticism from the United Kingdom for claiming that the British and French were helping Ukrainian soldiers handle these missiles and define targets.
This is “a very serious matter and that is why it is now the subject of a very careful, exhaustive and rapid investigation,” according to the German Chancellor during a visit to Rome.
The public television channel 'ARD' classifies the event as a “catastrophe” for the German secret services, accused of negligence in their security measures. While according to the weekly Der Spiegel, the videoconference was developed through the public platform WebEx and not an ultra-secure internal network of the Air Force.
“If this story turns out to be true, it would be very problematic,” the chairman of the German parliamentary committee, which oversees the secret services, Konstantin von Notz, told RND group newspapers.
On the Russian side, the head of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, visiting Turkey, stated that the matter is proof that “the war field in Europe remains very, very strong.”
The number two of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, considered in his Telegram account that “our old rivals, the Germans, have once again become our sworn enemies” and are preparing missile launches to attack the “homeland” Russian.
Many officials in Berlin see it as an operation by Moscow to influence the German debate over arms deliveries to Ukraine.
For the defense expert of the liberal FDP party, member of the government coalition, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Moscow's intention “is obvious”: to “intimidate” Scholz so that he does not reconsider his refusal to hand over the Taurus, she stated in front to Funke journalists.
With AFP
This article was adapted from its original French version.
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